Friends and players honor deceased FFXIV player with in-game memorial

"Osa Talo, an Elezen female in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on the Cerberus server, has passed away in real life. Friends, guildmates, and fellow players gathered in-game for a memorial in honor and remembrance of Osa.

Redditors came together today to share memories of Osa and the service, which took place on the front steps of the Sanctum of the Twelve in the East Shroud."

There's something really beautiful and poignant about this. People who play games like this are often seen as geeky or social outcasts but this demonstrates something I find remarkable in an age of growing virtual space. Whilst family and friends can gather around and attend the real life funeral or gather around the grave to lay down their flowers, those who are distanced by geography can come together as one and grieve too.

They may only appear to be polygonal representations of real people, but this shows how emotions can transcend earthly limitations and bring out the very thing that makes us human. Perhaps lobbyists who rail against video games as a force of evil should consider moments like this when gamers show solidarity in the face of great sadness.

I don't believe in God, I never have and I never will, but I do believe in people, and it's moments like this that cement that notion and remind me to never forget.

"I hit a low as a tank and was ready to hang up my sword and shield, Osa pushed me and gave me the strength I needed to continue, for both the game and life in general."

"Osa will surely be missed. She was a wonderful player and person who was willing to do everything she could to help everyone. RIP Osa you will be forever in our hearts"

This should be a reminder to everyone that we are not just text on a forum or a character in a game, we are real people communicating in the only way we can.

FOX news begs to differ.according to them gamers are a**hole criminals who shoot anything that moves and are a bigger than to humanity than terrorists and nuclear weapons.wish theyd report stuff like this too

I know what you mean, I love the Guild Wars community people helping strangers, joining forces etc. You just don't have games on consoles that create that same atmosphere, but with more MMO's on consoles now maybe that can change.

Except it's not even really true. Whenever some known figures died in a few fighting games community , they had respect and showed support among other examples .

Its displayed in stuff involving both consoles and a competitive aspect .

It's not always about yelling at each other and being mad you lost . And if anything , let's not even pretend those aspect arent as present in mmos , especially when those DO feature competitive aspects and rankings . There is a big difference in mmo communities and attitude circa EQ and Post WoW to boot , even if it varies from games to games .

The biggest jerks i've seen online were back in my days of Counterstrike , pre-source Days of Defeat , and Lineage 2 ...Idiots are everywhere

lol, have to be that guy, huh? Well, i guess you never played MGO, or PSO. While MGO on its last months seemed like a cesspool, it had some awesome people who played it till the end and are trying to revive the whole thing.

Damn that's a tight knit server for sure. RIP to the player, it's great that all of her friends that couldn't attend her real funeral did that for her. Games bringing people together, who knew that was possible nowadays!